With DVNTE, Rhatti establishes himself as an artiste with a profound ear for sound fusion, and an excellent trapster who can rap.
By Michael Chiedoziem Chukwudera
Armstrong Arinze Chukwuebuka, popularly known as Rhatti, is one of the enfant terribles of the booming music scene in Southeastern Nigeria. Formerly signed to Phyno’s Penthauze, he, alongside Nuno Zigi, is one of the artistes whose initial rise to fame just before 2020 sparked a sense of hope in what has become a very eventful scene in Igbo land, before his ordeal with Penthauze took a downturn. Although not all the details are clear, this story is one of the most heartfelt narratives recounted by fans of the music scene in the Southeast.
For what seemed like a couple of years, Rhatti appeared to be absent from the scene after his hit song, “God is da Plug”, which featured former label mate Nuno and fellow trap artist Jeriq. He made his return in 2022 with the song “Faith”, which, at the time, seemed to represent a new height in artistry for this artist, who has a knack for blending rasta music, trap, and rap.
The switch in the second stanza of the song, “Mi nuh need no validation/ Focused on my grind got no time for conversations/ Them nuh wanna see mi spark like a radiator…” left me stunned.
Over the past two years, in a bid to reinvent himself, the trapster has gradually made his way back to the scene with tracks including “Cold Day in Hell,” “Eazy” which samples Adele’s 2021 single, “Easy on Me,” and last year’s festive jam “Wonder,” which draws on the Igbo tradition of singing praise songs for prayers and celebrations. He also released “Balotelli,” his trap introduction earlier this year, along with a few new tracks—all of which feature on his new album titled DVNTE, an inverted spelling of DANTE, which stands for ‘Doing All Necessary To Excel’.
It was also chosen because the rapper is a literature student, deeply influenced by the 13th-century Italian poet, Dante and his poem, Inferno, which is evident in the sensibilities reflected in the rapper’s craft.
DVNTE begins with an interlude that interprets the afterlife based on the popular African belief that “When a man is dying, in his last breath, he becomes a ghost forced to watch his own life. He won’t be able to interact, only observe; this can either be an enjoyable experience or a torture, heaven or hell”.
As though the music were a time machine, Rhatti transports listeners back to the 1990s as the album kicks into life with the song “Bad Boy,” which combines the sounds of 90s hip hop and reggae. Even in an era when nostalgia is a tool that musicians frequently employ to sell their music by bringing back sounds from the past, this song stands out as distinctly different. In the third track, he infuses 90s Afrobeats with trap music. There’s singing. There’s trapping. There’s a choral refrain.
Falz makes a guest appearance on the track “Cyanide,” where they both go head-to-head in a song about inordinate sexual desires. By this point, one gets the unmistakable sense that one of the visions for this project is to achieve an ingenious infusion of sound, and the album is already succeeding at it.
I could practically see myself standing on the main roads of Obazee Street, where I grew up in Benin, or walking along Upper Mission Road, where I walked every day for ten years to and from school, hearing these sounds booming from speakers in music shops as music was played back in those days.
My favourite collaboration is “In Another World,” featuring the poet and singer, Beni. This track is the most emotionally acute and one of the most heartfelt on the project, as they both rap and sing about a failed love affair between two people who loved each other deeply. He only realises this at the end of the relationship, while she, despite having thought about it over and over again, can only bid goodbye to her lover with the words, “I hope this lasts in another world.” Benita’s singing is so fluid, and its movement could be compared to that of Jhené Aiko. This melancholic song beautifully breaks your heart while also possessing the power to heal.
In the order in which the songs are arranged, listeners are taken on an ingenious fusion of sounds that travel from the 1990s to 2024, culminating in a sense of anticipation for festivity. In this achievement, as in many profound works of art, the past converses with the present through the music.
Rhatti has established himself as an Igbo rapper and trapster well-versed in the language, but this album is not his Illmatic; rather, the project, both in its sound and style, effortlessly assumes an international appeal.
The project combines influences from Igbo trap, a touch of Igbo gospel and festive music, Jamaican reggae and dancehall, American hip hop, 90s Afrobeats, and a hint of R&B. Thus, artistically, the artiste seeks out cross-cultural elements, while lyrically, he looks inwards. This double-edged execution is impressively carried out.
The release of the album seems abrupt to the public, lacking sufficient announcements. One is left to wonder what Rhatti must have been thinking when he chose to release an album like this. Is it arrogance or the artiste’s usual introversion?
Rhatti’s DVNTE is destined to be a classic of Afro-hip-hop fusion. It only needs to make some noise to achieve that feat, and if it is commercially successful by hip-hop standards, Rhatti would have attained a monumental achievement. However, one hopes that this hopelessly eccentric artiste has some marketing tricks up his sleeve to promote this incredibly exciting and impressive project to its listeners.
With DVNTE, Rhatti establishes himself as an artiste with a profound ear for sound fusion, and an excellent trapster who can rap. However, his flirtatiousness in some respects downplays his rapping abilities, especially for an artiste who has proven himself talented enough to rap at the highest level. DVNTE is an outstanding project that evokes nostalgia and deserves to be shelved among the most artistic cross-genre projects to emerge from Nigeria so far.
Lyricism – 1.4
Tracklisting – 1.6
Sound Engineering – 1.6
Vocalisation – 1.6
Listening Experience – 1.8
Rating – 7.8/10
Michael Chiedoziem Chukwudera, a writer and community builder, is the author of the novel, Loss is an Aftertaste of Memories.